A $45 million development in Rockwood, one of Gresham‘s most diverse and poorest areas, promises to create a neighborhood center, provide multiple services and space for 40 businesses, and create jobs.

Josh Fuhrer left Gresham City Council in 2013 to become executive director of the Gresham Redevelopment Commission, which is overseeing the project named Downtown Rockwood. The long-term plan, he said, is to bring new life to the neighborhood that currently lacks a central community center and is underserved.

The city and the community have worked on the project for a long time, Fuhrer said.

“Even before I took the position, it’s been 10 years of work,” he said, “and getting to this stage is a real milestone. And even though it’s exciting, I’ll exhale when the project is built.”

Downtown Rockwood will be constructed on 5.5 acres of land bordered by East Burnside Street and Southeast Stark Street, and 185th and 187th avenues. Three buildings with a total of 260,000 square feet will be constructed around a large, public courtyard that will be available for concerts, theatrical performances, farmers markets and festivals.

RKM Development is developing the project in partnership with the city of Gresham, and YBA Architects is handling master planning and design. A general contractor has not been selected yet.

The development will “create a vibrant town center and commercial nucleus for this long-marginalized community,” YBA Architects principal Matt Brown said.

Rockwood is one of the “most socio-economically challenged” communities in the Portland-metro area, and one of the most ethnically diverse where “88 languages and counting” are spoken, Brown added.

“We hope it will be a model for a more socially sustainable approach to injecting new development into an undervalued community,” he said.

Brown said that above all, he wants the design to reflect the diversity of the Rockwood community and make it “a little bit scrappier” than what developers expect for high-end developments in the Pearl District, for example.

“We want to create great architecture but also to create architecture so they can make it their own, to paint and adorn storefronts and allow individual tenants – the businesses and residents – to apply their own personality to their spaces,” he said.

In the Pearl District, for example, people want designs that are “clean and crisp,” without anything on balconies, Brown said. But people who live in Downtown Rockwood apartments will be encouraged to give their spaces a lived-in look to reflect the different cultures and thus reflect Rockwood.

At the heart of Downtown Rockwood, , will be the public plaza. At about 140 feet by 180 feet, it will include areas for recreation and shopping as well as a food-oriented market hall expected to accommodate activity 18 hours per day.

The market hall will include a public commissary kitchen, Fuhrer said.

“It can be used by anybody in the community who needs a prep kitchen to make food for large groups or for small businesses,” he said. “It is commercially-rated, which they can use without having to have their own kitchen.”

Around the edges of the plaza will be the market hall, a four-story office and retail building and a five-story building with housing units, a medical clinic, several restaurants and retail spaces.

Although the design has not received final approval yet, Fuhrer said the project will include a tech shop featuring carpentry equipment, a metals lab, 3-D printers and other devices for high-tech manufacturing.

“That will allow folks to use equipment to make a physical thing themselves or use it to start a business,” he said. “Or they can take classes to use machining and manufacturing equipment that makes them qualified to get living-wage manufacturing jobs.”

Also, WorkSource Oregon will relocate to Downtown Rockwood from its office on 194th Avenue, and Mt. Hood Community College‘s Small Business Development Center will move its office to the site from downtown Gresham, Fuhrer said.

A major determining factor for what would be included in the development came from community input, which Fuhrer said is ongoing.

“We had over 300 community outreach meetings and received hundreds and hundreds of feedback (submissions) from community members, and we’re planning to do more,” he said.

Potential tenants for Downtown Rockwood are being recruited, he added. More details are available .

The design of Downtown Rockwood has been approved by the Redevelopment Commission, Fuhrer said, but several more bureaucratic hurdles must be overcome before final approval can be given by the Gresham Planning Commission. He hopes that will occur no later than early 2017.

“We’re looking to start construction in the spring with completion in 2018,” he said.

Downtown Rockwood

Location: between East Burnside Street and Southeast Stark Street, and 185th and 187th avenues

Cost: approximately $45 million

Anticipated construction start date: spring 2017

Anticipated construction completion date: 2018

Owner: city of Gresham

Developer: city of Gresham and RKM Development

Architect: YBA Architects

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